why aws dominating cloud computing market in 2023

Why is AWS Dominating the Cloud Computing Market in 2024?

Amazon Web Services, Cloud Computing / By

This blog post talks in detail about What AWS is, Why AWS cloud, Why Azure is still lagging behind AWS, and everything else you need to know about the state of the cloud computing market. 

Before we dive directly into what the cloud computing market looks like or who the cloud computing king is—AWS or Azure—let’s take a moment to understand what exactly cloud computing is. Let’s dive in! 

What is Cloud Computing?

In simple words, cloud computing refers to the delivery of computer services, which include servers, storage, databases, networking, software analytics, and intelligence. You share these resources over the internet or the cloud to quicken the pace of innovation, provide flexible resources, and enjoy cost-efficiency. 

Cloud computing can be exclusively for a single business (private), or owned and operated by some third-party (public) or you can also go for a combo of these two (hybrid). There are various types of cloud computing and numerous types of cloud computing services. 

And speaking of cloud computing services, serverless computing, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), or serverless computing.  

Interestingly, there are innumerable cloud computing services in the market that are willing to offer you premium resources at an affordable range. Yet, when the word cloud computing appears, only one name pops up in our minds: AWS or Amazon Web Services. 

What is AWS?

Launched in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing service provider that provides scalable and affordable cloud computing solutions. It is a leading cloud provider that has over 170 AWS services for developers to make their lives a breeze. AWS has customers from all over the world, including 190 countries. Amazon claims that the number of active users to date is approximately 1,000,000. 

The range of users involves 5000 ed-tech institutions and 2000 government organizations. Giant players like Netflix, ESPN, Adobe, Twitter, BBC, AirBnB, etc. are some of the active consumers of AWS services. For instance, Adobe uses AWS to create its infrastructure and offer multi-terabyte operating environments for its clients. Likewise, Netflix uses AWS cloud computing solutions to offer seamless video-streaming services to its viewers.

Speaking of cloud computing services, AWS comes with a wide range of on-demand services to help developers deploy and scale their apps on the cloud platform in the easiest way possible. These solutions include:

  • Storage
  • Network and content delivery
  • Database
  • Computer service
  • Security tools
  • Developer tools
  • Management tools

Similarly, AWS has many sophisticated applications in its bag to provide agility and scalability to your business. The most common AWS apps include storage and backup, websites, web apps, gaming, and mobile and social apps. 

Some cool statistics and facts about AWS

While all of us know something and many things about AWS, let’s take a quick look at the timeline of AWS:

2002: Launch of AWS

2006: AWS cloud products were launched.

2012: First customer event of AWS

2015: AWS achieved USD 4.6 billion.

2016: AWS bypassed the USD 10 billion revenue target.

2016: (same year) AWS snowball and snowmobile were launched.

2019: Introduced 100 of its cloud services.

To get a clearer picture of AWS’s foothold, have a sneak peek at the current scenario of AWS and how it is ruling the cloud computing market: 

  • AWS grew by 36.5% year-on-year in the first quarter. Researchers say it’s faster than they had estimated. 
  • AWS was lucky enough to allocate USD 6.52 billion of its operating income in the first quarter, which is almost 57% higher than the USD 5.62 billion as stated by StreetAccount consensus. 
  • Interestingly, with Amazon’s total operating income being USD 3.7 billion, the overall business might have collapsed had it not been for AWS performing extraordinarily, no matter what.
  • AWS revenue in the fourth quarter summed up to USD 18.44 billion, which is 16% of Amazon’s total revenue and higher than StreetAccount’s estimate of USD 18.27 billion.
  • As one of the national dailies correctly states, “In Amazon, cloud means profit.” AWS’ operating margin grew to 35.3% from 29.8% in the fourth quarter. 

Why AWS cloud is dominating the cloud computing market?

AWS is the king, ruling the cloud computing market throughout the decade. Research says AWS’s global market share is close to 33.8%, whereas Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM together hold merely 30% of the market share. Interestingly, in Q1 of 2016, while Alibaba Cloud, Microsoft, and Google had stable growth rates and performed well, AWS still had higher revenue than all five. So the question is, how does AWS comfortably dominate the market?

Firstly, AWS maintained its throne due to consistent price drops. AWS has revised its pricing models more than 50 times since 2006, which helps businesses scale conveniently while maintaining economies of scale. 

Secondly, AWS has constantly evolved and innovated, which gives it the first-mover advantage. From being an infrastructure platform, today it offers platforms for databases, developer apps, tools, analytics, AR, AI, etc. Currently, AWS has 16 regional operations and plans beyond computing and storage. One of the many reasons why big names like Netflix, Spotify, and Adobe are AWS customers. 

Lastly, AWS ensures agile and scalable solutions. It has a broad range of strategic adoption tools for beginners, like native cloud apps and e-business hosting. On the contrary, it also offers large tech partner ecosystems for those planning to expand their business and provides a wide array of PaaS and IaaS solutions.

aws popularity google trends

Well, these are just a few reasons. While many cloud service providers strive to break through the AWS noise, AWS keeps innovating and experimenting calmly and has bagged big industry players. The segment that will take you through AWS is the absolute love for business and cloud engineers.

Why do startups love AWS more than Azure?

Azure entered the market a little later than AWS but quickly captured a tangible share. It’s open to hybrid cloud systems and offers better tools to ensure data security. Also, Azure makes it super easy to switch between environments and operate their on-premise systems. Yet, I am pretty sure you must have found out that more and more businesses, especially startups, tend to gravitate towards AWS more. But why?

To begin with, startups face numerous challenges while they struggle to get a foothold in the market. Its main goal is to lower expenditures while maximizing its revenue and maintaining digital footprints. That’s where AWS helps startups ace the game. There are mainly four ways in which AWS surpasses Azure: 

  • AWS offers maximum flexibility: AWS has more services, more solutions, and more locations when compared to any other vendor. It allows more control over deployment, access to tools needed, traffic flow, and costs. Azure, on the other hand, is a general cloud provider but appears to be more beneficial for those who are already working with the Microsoft tech stack on a deeper level.
  • AWS offers simple yet best pricing: Pricing models and budgeting are mammoth tasks, especially when you are switching from on-premise infrastructure to a pay-as-you-go approach. Compared to Azure and Google Cloud, AWS offers the best model.
  • AWS has better documentation and a community: Documentation is often an overwhelming procedure for any new user, but AWS cuts out everything fluffy or fancy. The AWS community is also pretty large. There are innumerable blogs, guides, tutorials, forums, videos, and tools that help you learn about AWS services and make them graspable.
  • AWS has a competitive advantage in the local market: Undoubtedly, AWS has a greater local market share.

We have a clear winner here! 

Is AWS good for beginners?

If you want to build your career in cloud computing and cloud engineering, AWS can be a significant stepping stone in your profile. AWS being the pioneer in cloud computing services, will provide a myriad of resources, tools, guides, support, forums, and communities to learn from. Here’s how AWS makes it easier for you:

  • You can use AWS real-time web analytics with Kinesis Data Analytics Solution to allow you to track your website actions. 
  • The Blockchain service by AWS makes it easier for you to create, install, and handle scalable blockchain networks. Moreover, you won’t have to rely on costly consultations and implementations.
  • AWS also offers a wide range of AI services and is the best fit for your services. These AI services efficiently tackle bottlenecks, saving you from the naivety of lacking machine learning skills.
  • Similarly, the IoT services of AWS give a comprehensive set of security tools to help you install protection measures and troubleshoot issues right away. 
  • Amazon Sumerian is a popular solution that will help you develop and operate AR/VR and 3D applications, thereby saving your precious dollars on 3D graphics experts or programmers. 

Demand for AWS professionals

Is going for AWS or AWS certification worth it? Yes, there is a very high demand for AWS professionals in the IT industry. Numerous job profiles require professionals who know how to operate on the AWS platform. Some of the prominent AWS roles include: 

  • AWS cloud architect
  • SySOps Administrator
  • Cloud developer
  • Cloud sales and purchase manager
  • Cloud DevOps engineer
  • Clouds software engineer
  • AWS networking specialist
  • AWS big data specialist
  • AWS certified solution architect associate

Now, why is there a huge demand for AWS professionals right now? Here are a few prominent reasons: 

  • Organizations are increasingly adopting AWS platforms. AWS bypasses legacy solutions in a myriad of ways. As discussed above, it allows businesses to scale. 
  • IT professionals have to acquire practical exposure to cloud computing. Cloud computing skills are a quintessential part of an IT professional’s resume. To provide agility and scalability, businesses need to work on some cloud platform and therefore need professionals who can efficiently handle these environments. 
  • There’s a huge gap between the demand for and supply of AWS professionals. The proportion of businesses adopting AWS to that of IT professionals who are AWS experts is significantly lower. Businesses cannot prosper if they don’t hire AWS professionals to help them with infrastructure and data security. AWS cloud computing is the new hot profile for any IT professional. 

You can also go through our blog to discover the scope of AWS cloud professionals in India.

However, to gain a foothold in AWS and become an AWS professional, you need to qualify for some certifications. Though one might get overwhelmed while choosing among AWS cloud computing courses, Whizlabs offers a few courses & AWS Hands-on Labs wherein you can begin with: 

Other cloud service providers

Other than AWS and Azure, you will find a multitude of cloud service providers who are efficient cloud computing players and come with their own set of out-of-the-box features. Here’s a list of cloud service providers following AWS and Azure in the list: 

  1. Google Cloud: Google Cloud offers cloud services and solutions and runs its infrastructure on the same platform used by the end-users. The primary users of Google Cloud are Google Search and YouTube. Data analysis and machine learning are some of the services offered by Google Cloud. 
  2. IBM Cloud Services: IBM Cloud mainly focuses on PaaS and IaaS. The IBM Cloud implements and accesses its tools through storage, networking, and computing power using the internet. It is known for eliminating complex problems faced by large companies and is popular among a lot of retail giants. 
  3. server space Cloud Servers focus on Windows and Linux OS users only. With ServerSpace Cloud servers, you can customize your configurations, tweak your VMs, and pay-as-you-go. This cloud player is excellent at handling unlimited traffic, ensures high performance, and 24*7*365 support service. 
  4. Oracle Cloud: Oracle comes in among the top five cloud service providers. Oracle Cloud offers 65 cloud services, including Terraform, Kubernetes, and CloudEvents. It also provides an autonomous Database that helps you self-optimize and self-resolve to ensure high-quality performance. 

Summary

Having said that, to become an AWS professional, you need to have detailed knowledge and practical exposure to AWS infrastructure and services, and that will be possible only by going for the correct certifications. We at Whizlabs provide various AWS certification courses to make you invincible in cloud computing and cloud engineering. 

The courses involve study guides, tutorials, hands-on labs, and many practice tests. Reach out to us to delve into more amazing certifications, training, and courses. 

 

About Abilesh Premkumar

Abilesh holds a Master's degree in Information technology and Master of Philosophy Degree in Computer Science and did his Research on Information security via Collaborative Inference Detection. Also, received an Honorary Doctorate from UNO recognized organization. He contributes to Cloud research and supports building cloud computing tools.

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